Tribunal
by 66sixx
Summary: Thirteen gamblers have each been given one last chance to survive. They have been accused of cheating and faced three trials. They have each beaten the first two and are one step away from freedom. During this one step, they were each backstabbed by their peers. Now they have this one final chance to escape. This time, they will be judge, jury and executioner.
1. Episode 1

**The Good Die Young**

"First of all, let me congratulate you on clearing the first two hurdles to freedom. You have each proven your innocence by winning two games designed by our casino staff. However, in this third game, there need not be a single loser nor a single winner. Instead of our staff judging you, you will judge each other. Let me explain the rules to this game from which both of you may escape. You each have three choices: you may Trust your opponent, you may Distrust your opponent, or you may Kill the opponent."

Hunter Price took a long look at her opponent. She knew nothing about him. Not his name, his age, his family, nothing. Except that he was here for the same reason that she was.

"If both of you Trust each other, you both make it out of here alive and with a million dollars each to put the cherry on the top. Alternatively, one of you could Kill the other and take the lot for yourself. But here is the downside to trying something like that. If the opponent Distrusts and you try to Kill, guess what? You die instead! Ha ha ha. Just as there is a downside to Killing, there is a downside to Distrusting. If you Distrust an opponent who doesn't Kill you, you pay with your life. So let's break down the possible _scenari_ that can come up in this game."

If they both Trust each other, they both win our freedom. Trust-Kill means the Trusting player dies, but Trust-Distrust means death for the Distrusting player. Kill-Distrust means that the Killing player dies. If both of them Kill or both of them Distrust, then they both die. Whoever's still standing at the end gets a share of two million dollars. This setup reminded Hunter of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Trust defeats Distrust which defeats Kill which defeats Trust and so on. If there was to be a draw, then it would come down to what was played. If they both Trusted, they would both live, otherwise, they would both die. Hunter decided to break the silence.

"I don't know you and you don't know me. But we both know that this money takes a back seat to our freedom. I'm through with dealing with money, I'm through with my debts. I just want a normal life like the one everyone else gets."

The man standing across from me spoke. "I ran away two years ago to escape the things that were wrong with my life. I faked my death. And now they're giving us each enough to start new lives. I can start over. Let's get out of here alive. Let's Trust one another."

"Is there anything else that anyone wants to say?"

"No I'm ready."

"So am I."

"Then in front of each of you is a box with three buttons in it. Look inside and make sure you press the button corresponding to your choice. There is to be no discussion, and there is no possibility to peek at your opponent. You may have lied during your conversation. This is a game and you are able to lie. If one of you happens to defeat the other, I will not think less of either of you. Please... make your decisions now." The facilitator of this game turned his back to them and the players faced one another as they made the choice that would lead them to freedom.

Once we made our choices, the facilitator turned facing the players once again. "Now that you both have made your decisions, I will reveal them. These are the ones that count." The facilitator pulled a lever and the decisions were revealed. Hunter was left speechless. She chose Trust. Her opponent had chosen Kill. He had condemned Hunter to death.

"One thing I forgot to tell you, girl. I never really was on your side. I just wanted the money to start my life over." He pointed at Hunter. "I don't care about you, ..." He pointed at the facilitator. "... or you." The man walked away after receiving that check for two million dollars. Hunter was taken away by the facilitator, who forced some sort of pill down her throat. After a brief struggle, Hunter stopped moving. The facilitator then carried Hunter's body out of the room.

**The Tribunal**

Hunter woke up some time later. She found herself in a larger room than the one used for her Third Trial. With her were twelve others wondering where they were and how they got there. None of the thirteen had any idea of their purpose here. They continued talking for minutes until a television screen came to life. A man in a hood and a mask appeared.

"Welcome to the Tribunal! All of you here have each defeated two members of our casino staff. Sadly, in the Third Trial, you were all either betrayed, outsmarted or just plain paranoid. All of you should have been killed, but I decided that that's not the way I want to see any of you go. So I decided to give you all one last chance. And like in your Third Trial, you all will play judge, jury and executioner. One at a time, you will be killed off. You will call each other to the stand. The number of people called to the stand can range from 2 to everyone. Those called to the stand will testify to one another in a Trial like the ones which landed you here. The loser from each Trial will die. The method used to call defendants to the stand will differ, so pay attention. One Trial could have you voting people to the stand and another Trial could have you voting people _from _the stand. For now, we'll start with the basics. Vote for two people. At the end of it all, the two defendants with the most votes will be called to the stand. Good luck to you all. But before I leave, I believe you have a right to know who you are competing against."

The screen turned gray and the words "Defendant No. 01 Kazuo Haramura" appeared on screen. A spotlight appeared and found its way to Kazuo. "This is Kazuo Haramura. He tried to Kill his opponent, but was outsmarted when said opponent chose to Distrust." Kazuo said nothing. The masked man chuckled and moved on to the next defendant. "Defendant No. 02 Holly Dunbar". The spotlight moved to Holly. "She was betrayed in her Third Trial." Thus, the masked man moved down the list of defendants and how they got here.

No. 03 Yuusuke Kataoka was betrayed.

No. 04 Hunter Price was betrayed.

No. 05 Hisashi Takei and his opponent both Distrusted.

No. 06 Clancy Dunbar and his opponent both Distrusted.

No. 07 Kang Jihye was outsmarted.

No. 08 Hans Rothmann was betrayed.

No. 09 Eun Sangju was outsmarted.

No. 10 Makoto Someya was outsmarted.

No. 11 Dieter Zimmermann was betrayed.

No. 12 Alessandra Tivoli was paranoid and wrongly Distrusted her opponent.

No. 13 Sakuya Miyanaga was outsmarted.

"Now that we've taken some time to know each other, you will each vote two of your fellow defendants to the stand. The two defendants with the most votes will stand Trial. There are thirteen separate rooms in which you will cast your votes. Please enter these rooms now." The thirteen each occupied a voting room and were locked inside until everyone cast their votes. Each of the thirteen defendants contemplated on who should stand trial. Minutes felt like hours. The short time it took for them to cast their votes became a full day to them. Once all of the votes were cast, the rooms unlocked and it was time to see the results.

"Your votes have been cast and it is time to display the results." The screen was split into six rows. Equal signs followed by numbers appeared to the left of each row. "=1"," =1", "=3", "=3", "=3", and "=3". To the right, the number of votes that someone received. Two of them received 4 votes, and four of them received 3 votes. But which six would appear on the screen?

Hisashi's name appeared on the bottom row of the screen. He was safe. Knowing this, he sighed a sigh of relief.

"Fuck..." was the only response that Clancy could make.

Hunter's name appeared next on the fourth row. She was safe from the stand as was Alessandra, whose name appeared between that of Hisashi and Hunter. There was one more person who received three votes, who was it?

After a very tense moment, Dieter's name appeared and confirmed that he received only three votes. Now, Dieter was safe. He sighed in relief just as Hisashi did. This left two defendants who each received four votes and seven defendants, none of whom received more than two votes. A 22.22% chance to be called to the stand. Soon, the names of the two called to the stand were revealed.

=1 Kazuo Haramura 4 votes  
=1 Hans Rothmann 4 votes

Everyone who did not see their names on the screen could breathe easy. They survived the first trial.


	2. Episode 2

**Alliances**

"With four votes each, Kazuo Haramura and John Redman, I'm sorry, I meant Hans Rothmann, have been called to the stand for this First Trial" With those words, a trap door opened. An armed man emerged and asked for Kazuo and Hans to come down with him. The two walked slowly to the armed man. Once they were within an arm's reach of the man, the three of them walked down a flight of stairs before they were out of sight and the trap door closed. With that, there were 11 in the room. The first thing on everyone's minds was the fact that there were two people with the last name Dunbar. It's reasonable to say that they are related, but the name Dunbar could be as common as Smith, Zhang, Kim or Smirnov. Still, Hunter felt like she needed to pop the question. She came up to Clancy and asked the question.

"So, Clancy, this Holly girl, do you know her?"

"Sadly, yes, she's my sister. I have a feeling that once this trial is over, everyone will come after us. It'll be 10 against 2."

"What if you could get others on your side?"

"What do you mean?"

"I could join you. It would be better for me than going it alone. We could all make it out alive. The three of us."

"We'll need at least seven to form a majority. But the problem is that with seven, not all of us will survive."

Meanwhile, another alliance is in the works. Hisashi and Makoto are discussing the idea of working together. They realise that they will need more people and it is almost certain that not everyone from their alliance will make it out. Jihye and Sangju come up to them, asking if the four of them could work together.

"We heard what you said about working together. Being a part of an alliance seems to be the only realistic way to survive. What do you say to the four of us working together?" Jihye asked.

"You are right that an alliance can work together to keep themselves safe. But we can't really have more than six. Hell, even four might be too many, but we won't know that until we get down to the last six." Hisashi pointed out.

"So we're gonna have to choose between all of us getting dying and some of us dying. I think any alliance of more than four will fall apart."

"But that won't matter. Because I want in." Sakuya entered. "I don't care if there's a 1 in 5 or 1 in 6 chance I won't make it. It would be almost impossible to survive on your own."

"So we have myself, Makoto, Sakuya, Jihye and Sangju. The five of us will be the last ones left."

**The First Trial**

Kazuo and Hans were briefed on the rules of this first trial, a single hand of mahjong. Mahjong is a game similar to (and a possible forerunner of) rummy. The object was to collect four sets of tiles and a pair. Each of them would receive 13 tiles. In turn, they would draw a tile and discard either that tile or a different tile unless they had a winning hand. There were exceptions to the rule of four sets and a pair. A hand could also be formed with either seven pairs or one each of every 1 or 9, every wind and every dragon. But such a hand was very rare and would require lots of luck. A winning hand also had to meet one of several conditions called _yaku_ in Japanese. Kazuo knew these by heart, because he was an avid mahjong player. Hans meanwhile had not seen the game more than a few times. He knew all of the rules to this game except the _yaku_. But...

"Both players have a right to know all of the rules to this game, so we have printed a card containing all of the rules to the game, you will be allowed to keep this card at the table and we will give you ten minutes to read the rules before we begin." Kazuo, having been surrounded by the game of mahjong virtually his entire life, scanned the card for any house rules in this game. Other than that the game would be only one hand, he found no change to the rules of the game he knew. Hans, however, soaked up every bit of information. Ten minutes passed and then...

"We will now begin this trial." The facilitator of this trial pressed a button and a wall of tiles rose to the table's surface. The facilitator pushed a button to roll a pair of dice. He counted and said that Kazuo would be the dealer for this hand. The two players each drew their thirteen tiles. Kazuo was five tiles from winning, while Hans was only four from winning. Kazuo drew first.

**Author's note: **Mahjong is a very complex game, the most complex of all the games that will be featured in this story. Because of this, I will not go into much detail about the game's actual events, but I will use basic mahjong terms such as "Riichi", "Tsumo", and "Ron".

After a few turns, Kazuo made it to within three tiles of winning and Hans made it to within two. Now their hands were progressing more slowly. Kazuo drew a 5-string, a tile that didn't help him. Hans drew next.

"Riichi." Hans threw his 5-coins. No help to Kazuo as he had no coin tiles. The two took turns until...

"Riichi." Kazuo threw an 8-character tile. Both players were now one tile from winning the hand and surviving. It was a matter of luck now. Kazuo needed a 2-character and Hans needed a 7-character. It took seven turns on each side to decide the hand. But eventually, Hans drew his needed 7-character and slammed it onto the table.

"Tsumo!" Hans sunk back into his chair. It was over for now. Kazuo sighed as the facilitator pulled a gun on him.

"Kazuo Haramura, you have lost, we have found you guilty." The last thing that Kazuo heard was an explosion. The facilitator withdrew his gun and turned to Hans. "Hans Rothmann, you will now return to your fellow defendants to call witnesses for the next trial." Hans left the table and the trap door reopened. Another door opened to allow other facilitators to clean up Kazuo's body.

**The Return of Hans Rothmann**

Dieter, Yuusuke and Alessandra were chatting about how two alliances formed in ten minutes and how they should form their own, possibly teaming up with Hunter and the Dunbars. Talks had only just started when the trap door opened and Hans emerged. All eyes fell on him. Everyone tried to ask what happened in his trial with Kazuo. The screen lit up again, telling the defendants to calm down.

"Defendants, please calm down... please calm yourselves." The voice waited for everyone to be absolutely quiet. As soon as calm returned to the crowd, the voice spoke again. Silence.

"Good. Now that the first trial has ended, we will now call defendants to the stand again. Pay attention to how we'll do this. Each of you will get two up votes (worth 1) and two down votes (worth negative 1). Whoever has the highest vote count (up votes minus down votes) will be safe from the stand. The defendant with the lowest vote count will be called to the stand. We will do this five times. Those safe from the stand will continue to vote (with one of each vote) while those called to the stand will be unable to vote in later rounds. By the end of voting, five defendants will be called to the stand. We will allow no discussion, please proceed to your voting rooms." This presented a problem for the defendants, as they had no chance to discuss any strategy. The only strategy anyone had was to upvote allies and downvote everyone else. Even then, in the case of the five-way alliance, the upvotes were up in the air, they had not decided who would be safe and who would be called to the stand.

Once the votes were cast, the defendants were called back in front of the screen for the results, if any discussion were to occur, this was the only time to do that. Hisashi came up to each of his allies and told them to downvote Clancy and Hunter. At the same time, Clancy came up to his two allies and told them to downvote Hisashi and Jihye. But there would be no further discussion before the voice announced the results of the vote.

=5 Hans Rothmann 0  
=5 Makoto Someya 0  
=5 Dieter Zimmermann 0

A few seconds later, these results showed up.

8 Clancy Dunbar -1  
=9 Alessandra Tivoli -2  
=9 Hisashi Takei -2  
=9 Holly Dunbar -2  
12 Yuusuke Kataoka -4

"Yuusuke Kataoka, you have been called to the stand." That same trap door opened. "You will wait downstairs until five defendants have been called to the stand." With Yuusuke's temporary exit, this left 11 defendants, one of whom would be safe at the end of this round of voting. But who would that be? Hunter? Jihye? Sakuya? Sangju? This question would only be answered by the results of this vote. This person would still have influence over who would join Yuusuke in the next trial.

4 Sakuya Miyanaga 1  
=2 Hunter Price 2  
=2 Eun Sangju 2

A tie for second. The only defendant whose name had not come up yet was...

1 Kang Jihye 6

"Congratulations to Kang Jihye. You have the highest vote count among all defendants. Because of this, you cannot be called to the stand for this trial, but you will continue to vote. You will have one upvote and one downvote in each round of voting after this one. The next round of voting will begin immediately. Please enter your voting rooms." There is never any discussion before a vote. If an alliance wanted to stay together, they had to take advantage of the time between voting and results and during trials. But that would mean that anyone called to the stand would be out of the loop.


End file.
